Canon Selphy CP780 Review and Ratings

Editors’ Rating:

Our Verdict:
The latest Selphy dye-sublimation model is a well-built snapshot printer capable of producing good photos, but it lacks some features and requires pricey media. Read More…

What We Liked…

Good image quality

Virtually foolproof operation

Battery-pack option

What We Didn’t…

Expensive media

Tiny fixed LCD viewscreen

Limited feature set

Occasional misprints

Canon Selphy CP780 Review

By Sally Wiener Grotta and Daniel Grotta, reviewed April 17, 2009

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Canon’s $99 Selphy CP780 is a compact stand-alone photo printer capable of generating photo-lab-quality 4x6-inch color snapshots, with or without a computer. While it’s extremely simple, virtually goof-proof, and great fun to operate, especially for kids and technophobes, the CP780 is dogged by the high cost of its media and a dearth of functions and features.

Although the CP780 is compact, after you insert the paper cassette, you need to clear space behind the printer for the paper to pass in and out the back while printing. As a result, its effective footprint expands to nearly 16 inches in depth. The angled 2.5-inch LCD viewscreen is quite small, and because it’s fixed and doesn’t swivel, you must hover almost directly over the printer to see anything. Even under optimal viewing conditions, it’s virtually impossible to discern any detail or check whether the image is in focus. Also, the LCD screen lacks pan and zoom capability, as well as a rotate command, so unless you work from a computer, you can’t enlarge, crop, or rotate your photos.

The printer hardware controls and the included software are both lean on image-correction, -enhancement, and -editing tools. You get only a basic selection of options: red-eye removal, single-button image optimization, simple page layout, the selection of bordered or borderless prints, and color-tone selection (sepia, vivid, black and white, neutral, or positive film). We would have liked a more comprehensive array of options.

The CP780 is almost ready to operate right out of the box: Simply plug in the power cord (or attach the optional $79.99 rechargeable battery), insert the ribbon cartridge in the side (it can’t be installed the wrong way), lay photo paper in the cassette, then slide the tray into the front of the printer. Unfortunately, the bundled starter kit comes with only enough media for five prints, so the first thing you’ll want to do is buy more paper and ribbon. The cassette can accommodate up to 18 4x6-inch sheets, as well as postcard-size photos, wide paper (4x8 inches), and labels. However, there’s no visual cue on the cassette or the printer about the orientation of the paper (glossy side up or down)—you must read the instruction booklet for that information.

The only other thing required before printing, unless you're printing from a computer, is to add a memory card or a PictBridge-enabled digital camera. (To print directly from a cell phone, you’ll have to buy either a third-party MicroSD/SDHC card adapter or Canon’s optional $49.99 Bluetooth adapter.) Otherwise, it takes only a few minutes to install the driver and software that allows the CP780 to connect directly to any PC or Mac via USB.

Because the printer has few options and fewer tools, operating it is quite easy. You can use the buttons on top of the printer to navigate though the images on a memory card or attached camera, or browse through a selected folder on your computer. It’s particularly easy finding recent shots, since the software allows you to specify if you want to display only the pictures shot today, within a week, or within a month. Select the images you wish to print, make any adjustments (such as red-eye removal or image optimization), specify the number of copies you want, then press the Print button.

Curiously, printing through the computer is significantly faster than printing from a memory card or camera. The same test image that took 59 seconds to print from the PC required 1 minute and 13 seconds to print directly from the CP780. These times are better than most of the other snapshot printers we have recently reviewed, though. The HP Photosmart A826 took 1 minute and 30 seconds to print a 4x6-inch photo, and an older version of the Selphy, the CP770, took 1 minute and 15 seconds. But those times are slow compared with some comparatively priced full-size printers that offer equal quality when printing 4x6s.

Image quality was generally good in our tests. Detail is excellent, and though the colors are for the most part accurate and the specular highlights quite good, our test images lacked true blacks. Also, unfortunately, a few of our prints exhibited small, random squiggles of primary colors that disappeared when the image was reprinted. Canon projects that the prints, if stored properly protected, will last up to 100 years.

Because the CP780 uses dye-sublimation technology, you must purchase specific Canon media (a pack of photo paper paired with a dye-sub cartridge). No generic supplies are available. The cost per 4x6-inch print works out to just less than 28 cents. That’s slightly more than the average kiosk print, but about on par with the cost per print of the CP770 and the competing Epson PictureMate Zoom. Again, though, some comparatively priced full-size printers can churn out snapshot-size images for much less than the CP780.

The Canon Selphy CP780 is a nice snapshot printer for the occasional photographer who doesn’t want to be encumbered with bulky or complex gear. But if you’re looking for much more bang for your photo-printing buck, consider checking out a full-size inkjet printer.